Our Framework
Background
DARE (Diversity Approach to Research Evaluation) looks at the role of collaborations in teams producing scientific knowledge and provides tools that reveal how collaborators with different backgrounds and experience connect.
This approach was developed because policy makers increasingly aim to understand how collaboration processes produce and exchange knowledge since these processes influence our ability to use this knowledge to create impact, such as development of solutions to societal problems and challenges.
Dare enables us to explore questions such as:
• Which types of differences are useful to analyse?
• How can we effectively analyse team-members' connections?
• What has changed as a result of a given collaborative initiative?
• How can collaborations be improved?
Measuring Processes Rather Than Impact
DARE focuses on the processes of research collaboration.
Using a combination of narratives, maps, and indicators this approach creates a rich understanding of collaboration in proposed, ongoing, or completed projects. See our cases page for some examples.
DARE is valuable because it supports the tracking of research and translation activities as they happen and in doing so this approach can identify the processes that over time may lead to outcomes and impacts. As a result, DARE is particularly useful in situations where outcomes take a long time to arise.
Key Concepts
The key analytical concepts of the approach presented here are:
• the diversity of the individuals in the network created by a given research initiative
• the cohesiveness between them achieved as a consequence of that research initiative
DARE defines and operationalises these particular notions of diversity and cohesiveness across different relevant domains in terms of their cognitive background, position in the organisation, social networks, institutional norms and geographical locations.
Mapping five diversity dimensions
In order to categorise and map team members, we apply the diversity indicator developed by Stirling (2007) and Ràfols (2014) to Boschma’s (2005) five dimensions. These five dimensions influence knowledge production.
Differences in the disciplines in which collaborators work
Physical distance between collaborators (in travel time)
Norms, rules and values of collaborators’ working environment
Extent of the familiarity in relationships between collaborators
Extent to which hierarchical structures separate collaborators
Read more about the five diversity dimensions in our User Guide
How is DARE different?
Although DARE addresses the way in which research generates impact, it differs from mainstream research evaluation and impact assessment practices in two main respects.
First, the approach does not focus on the identification and valuation of specific project outcomes and impacts. Instead, we examine the processes that lead to the development and application of research results. While assessing impacts and tracing them is possible, they often cannot be attributed only to the research effort being assessed. From a policy perspective, the results of assessing outputs and impacts are unlikely to be timely and the specific role played by research is often indeterminate.
Instead, the DARE approach can be used to conduct evaluations as the research and application processes unfold. This allows us to use the evaluation results to:
• improve the research policy implementation
• to inform short and medium term policy decisions
• provide formative evaluation to individuals
• and to make management adjustments in ongoing projects
Second, DARE does not treat these processes as linear, with research results being ‘transferred’ downstream, handing them to actors who are progressively closer to application until they are finally transformed into applications. In a linear view, the focus is on pairs of actors involved in a transfer down the chain of linked stages, and the differences between these that can create breaks in the linear chain of knowledge transfer.
Instead, our approach regards interactions across disparate networks’ stakeholders as the key factor for the generation of applicable knowledge.
Find out more by reading our Research Brief, User Guide, or Paper:
